ABSTRACT
Advocacy also has an important role in modern settings. By calling for action, advocates place issues before policymakers. The struggle for civil rights by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., the defense of the right to bear arms by Charlton Heston, and the championing of migrant farm workers by César Chávez are all well-chronicled examples of advocacy. Less known but important forms of advocacy take place every day as well. Bicycle riders who disrupt automobile traffic in the name of safer riding conditions, animal rights activists who march in front of upscale department stores selling fur coats, and antiabortion activists who picket birth control clinics are also advocates. Advocacy is a vital part of the public policymaking process. Without it, many of the issues and problems requiring government action would never be noticed or acted upon.1
